Todd Tiahrt: “Well, I guess I'm entitled to my new math today. I would like to make the point that these summer jobs, or these…”

“Well, I guess I'm entitled to my new math today. I would like to make the point that these summer jobs, or these temporary youth jobs that are paid for by tax dollars don't create permanent jobs. Wichita State University did a study of what we received with the stimulus money; and of the $6.2 million that was received, 600 employers temporarily hired 1,593 youth for summer jobs. Out of that, only 62 jobs were permanent, or 3.8 percent. So if you look at what's happened through the stimulus, since the stimulus business was passed, we've lost 3.9 million private sector jobs. We have created jobs in the Federal Government, 63,000 jobs, another 230,000 jobs at the State and local level. How are we going to pay for those jobs in the future? We've created permanent government jobs and lost private sector jobs. A little math--that's not new math, but proven math--says that for every government employee, it takes 10 private sector jobs to pay enough Federal taxes to cover the cost of that employee. So what we should be talking about is not temporary jobs in the summer for youth, but permanent jobs, real jobs. And in fact, we need 3 million jobs just to cover the new government jobs that we've created. We can create those jobs through tax relief for employers. We can do it by freezing regulations and forcing the existing regulations through a simple formula where the benefit exceeds the cost. And we need tort reform, and we need to become energy independent.”